Well this is different, I’m writing this Blog post on the road! We’re literally driving on the highway headed to Windsor, Ontario, for another Couples Weekend! Not sure if I need to actually say this, but I will, just to clarify….Jeff is driving, not me lol!!
On these trips, my friends have given me the nickname of “the Cruise Director” as I quite enjoy planning events to keep us busy! I do quite a bit of research on our destination area to come up with fun events for us, make a tentative itinerary and away we go! Last time, when we headed to Ottawa, I gave them a destination that we would be stopping at but not what we would be doing there so it was a surprise until we arrived there! Our main event of the trip was to do an Escape Room at Diefenbunker so I ran with a whole “spy” theme, making games for us to play all around the theme! Funny thing though, we never played any of them lol! We ended up having so much fun just hanging out and chatting that time fillers, like games, were not needed! I had put a lot of time into the games but I didn’t even care for one second that we didn’t use them, I was just so happy that all my closest friends got along better than I had imagined!
So being that we’re smack dab in the middle of the festive season, I decided to use that as this year’s theme! Our first event is a Holly Jolly Scavenger Hunt downtown Windsor followed by participating in some Reindeer Games I’ve come up with! I found several “Minute to Win It” type games such as Let it Snow, Fill the Stockings, Candy Cane Catch and more! We’ll be comfy while we’re doing them too because I asked everyone to wear Christmas PJ pants and then I provided them with Team Shirts! I purchased inexpensive green and red shirts from Michael’s Craft Store and then I personalized them using my Cricut! To give you an idea, here’s my shirt:
Saturday is less planned other than heading to our main event in the evening, a magic show called The Illusionists at Caesars Windsor Casino! We’ll spend the afternoon visiting some wineries local wineries and whatever we end up finding to do!
Like a lot of venues these days, the Casino has a restricted bag policy that says your non-clear bags (purses) must not be larger than 6.5″ X 4.5″. I knew my purse is bigger than this and that my friend’s were too sooooo being the Bag Maker I am, I saw this as an opportunity to make something for us and since I’m taking this theme all the way, I decided I would use fabric from all our favourite Christmas movies! So I began the search to find a pattern for a bag that fit as close to those dimensions as possible and it didn’t take long to find one from Hold it Right There Patterns that was pretty darn close, the new Findlay Phone Wallet!
The finished dimensions of this cute but practical little pouch is 5″ high x 8” wide so I’m thinking it’s close enough! When we went to a different show at the Casino a few months ago, the same bag policy was in effect and they were letting slightly larger bags go through, just not the big handbag sized ones!
So, pattern has been chosen, now I just needed to get the fabrics, which I already owned 2 out of the 3 I needed but luckily I knew exactly where I could find the missing one lol! Here they are, our 3 Christmas Findlay Phone Wallets:
If these don’t scream “MERRY CHRISTMAS” to you, I didn’t do my “job” properly lol! I honestly had so much fun creating these clutches! They were a fairly quick little project and the directions were very easy to follow along with! Suzanna, the Designer, provides a very well written pattern with loads of pictures as well as includes a video tutorial on YouTube that you can follow along with if you prefer!
My friend Nancy LOVES A Christmas Story so I went with the Pink A Christmas Story Snow Suit for hers! My other friend Kim’s favourite movie is The Polar Express which we don’t unfortunately have fabric of so I had to go with her 2nd favourite, The Grinch! As you know, I just finished making dog collars using the Red Grinch Stripe and fortunately I had enough little pieces left over to use for this project! Obviously that leaves me! My absolute favourite Christmas movie is National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and a few years ago we had a fabric in it!!! Naturally I purchased several yards of it with absolutely no clue what I was going to use it for….until now lol! All three bags I paired with some red and green sparkly vinyl for the flap and handle and I was done!
Now, how to gift them to the proper owners? I decided to incorporate these as prizes of one of the Reindeer Games! We wrapped up 6 gifts, one for each person. 3 are these pouches and 3 are different chocolate goodies! We will take turns unwrapping our presents to determine the order of who does it the fastest….wearing oven mitts lol! They will then decide to keep their present or trade with someone else, hoping, of course, that the boys will keep the chocolates and the girls will each trade to get their favourite pouch! If it all works out, and I’m sure it will, I will then explain to the girls why I made the purses, so they can use them for all their valuables for the show!!! I’m so excited to give them the bags eeeekkkk! The Casino will be decked out in all it’s Christmas finery so I’m very much anticipating getting some amazing pictures of us and our Christmas bags! Of course you don’t even need to ask, I’ll gladly share the pictures with all of you!
Well that’s all for now, I must sign off as we’ll be meeting up with everyone shortly and the weekend frivolities will begin! I’m so excited for this weekend, there will be much laughter and silliness, lots of food and drink and hopefully even a bit of sleep lol! I hope you all have an amazing weekend too, we all need to be surrounded by those we love, whoever they may be!
Cheers!
Shawna
funkymonkeyfabrics.home.blog 